Small business owners move through each day with a long to-do list. One such item is to be continually innovative. They understand that if they stop creating, tweaking, and producing, their business is in jeopardy. If you are a business owner, you know this. Yet, how can you be more innovative with all you have to do? The key is to stop trying to do it all and take full advantage of your available assets.
Suggestions to Increase the Innovation in Your Small Business
Start looking at innovation as a regular function of your company – like accounting, sales, and production. This will help you put the steps into place to create products and services that keep you competitive. Now that you have a new way of thinking in place, use these steps to increase your company’s innovation:
1. Invite All Your Employees to Share Their Ideas:
Your employees work daily elbow deep in the details of your company. They talk with customers. They work on machines. They create software. The result is a group of people who have different insights into your customer needs. Those ideas become opportunities. You don’t have time to do it all, so don’t. Invite your team to join you in the innovation process.
2. Provide a Platform for Idea Gathering:
Once you get your team on board, you need to give them a place to put all of their ideas. This can be a brainstorming wall where ideas are written. Some companies use software for collection and voting. You might even use a Google doc, depending on the size of your team. Your goal is to have a landing pad that works for you.
3. Encourage Employees to Collaborate and Try Ideas:
Innovation requires some risk, and many are risk-averse. Encourage your team to vet ideas and then try them out. This is the best way to learn what will work, what won’t, and what needs tweaking.
4. Reward Creative Thinking:
One component of innovation is thinking outside the box. Be generous with kudos and encourage continual momentum, even if some ideas aren’t very good. You can also come up with a reward system.
5. Consider Stand-Up Meetings:
When gathering for brainstorming meetings, have everyone stand. You will all sense a change in the room’s energy as more people become engaged.
Release the burden of being the sole innovator in your small business. Instead, make it a team effort and see the innovation explode for your company.